Nan Yin 南音 at Tian Hock Keng

On Saturday night of 18 March, 2006, Tian Hock Keng (Guan Fu Gong 天福宫) opened its door to one of the rare concerts on Nan Yin 南音 - Southern Music. Once popular with the Emperor's Court from Tang Dynasty through Qing Dynasty, today, it is heartening to know that there are still groups of young people and old involved in practising and keeping this arts alive.

Organised by the Xiang Lin Music Society 湘灵音乐社, with the participation of the Fu Hai Monastery Choir 福海禅寺 and the support of Hokkien Huay Kuan, we got to listen to a very elegant and ancient music. Apart from the VIPs, the audience's median age must be 70! (^^) Ah, the music will remind them of their young days in the villages in and around Quan Zhou, China, where the Minnan Hua (Hokkien as known here) is spoken.

I think Tian Hock Keng is the appropriate place to perform such concerts as it also remind us of our ancestors who came to this temple upon touching the shores of Singapore. They brought along the cultural heritage to Singapore. Last night, some of the younger members, probably in the 12-16s, were also singing and playing in the Chinese Orchestra for Nan Yin. We know that Nan Yin will survive in Singapore. (^^)

A Life is just as Precious

In a dark cubicle of an equally dark pre-war house, somewhere in Kong Sai Kai (Keong Siak St) , some fifty years ago, a girl was born. She was born mute. And somewhere in Chinatown, another boy was also born. Mute.

Like a typical Chinese tale .. they were match-made. When this mute girl was growing up, her mother was concerned about her future. And so, she had long decided that she must get a husband for her. And so, these two mutes got married. Life was not easy but they got on. Husband was working on odd jobs. Wife worked as helper. In between, they had lovely kids, yes, they talk and are normal, thankfully.

If life was tough in Chinatown in the 60s to now, theirs would probably be more challenging. But each time when I met the mute lady, she was always happy and using her hands and whatever sounds she could make to communicate. She was a distant relative, probably linked all the way to this tiny village in China. And so, wherever we could, we would share something with her.

Unknownst to us, our Indonesian maid was also helping! We were wondering why she was keeping all the used drink cans in the house. Oh, she washed (to avoid the ants from making a mess) and saved them for the husband to sell!

And then, one morning, she waited and waited. In vain. She could not see him at the usual place. Then, we knew that he had passed on. When my wife met the wife, she was describing with her hands and sounds how she cried for days. (^^;

Now, each time I finish a can of drink, I think of these lives in our midst. A garbage could well mean a possible warm meal.

Lor Mee Anyone?

I suppose Lor Mee (or Lu Mian in Mandarin) must be a very Hokkien dish. It is one of those sticky gooey gravy over oily noodles (known as sic mee in Hokkien, meaning cooked noodles) complemented with chunks of fish meat (Ikan Merah fish?), sliced fatty pork and deepfried plain batter (like tempura), garnished with plenty of grated garlic, and if you like, at sliced chilli and a dash of black vinegar.

It is also interesting to see the stick gravy going watery, depending on the acidity (?) of the saliva. (^^)

In the old Boon Tat street, along a line of hawker stalls, there was once a famous Lor Mee Stall. It used to be one of my haunts when I worked around that area, well, not exactly near .. at Peck Seah St. For food, distance is not too far. once I travelled from Raleigh to Chapel Hill in North Carolina, USA, just for some good Indian food. (^^)

Now, at the Amoy St Food Centre, next to the famous old Sian Chor Keng (Xian Zu Gong) - temple more popular for Tua Pek Kong than its main Deity, Lu Dong Pin - each Sunday morning, from about 9am, one sees a long queue for the Lor Mee. It used to be the case of angry customers complaining when their orders were missed. These days, life is made simpler for the stallholder as the customers have to queue up to buy their noodles! One cannot appreciate the good customer service until now. (^^;

Each Sunday, parents bring their parents and their children to this place for breakfast. While the older folks relish on being able to taste and eat the same bowl of noodles that they had taken, maybe, some 60 years back, their 1-2 year old grandchildren have also been introduced to this dish. And so, the tradition of carrying on the taste and customs of how to each the Lor Mee is being transmitted.

A Sunday Morning at the Chinatown Food Centre

This could well be a typical Sunday mid-morning at the Chinatown Food Centre (FC). Well, I was there on 19 Feb 06 to have my favourite Vegetarian BeeHoon by the escalator nearer to the main market entrance.

Imagine that I have been eating at this Vegetarian BeeHoon stall long before the arrival of our kids, ate with the kids and now the kids are 13 & 11. This stall still has a queue every morning and the queue is much longer on the first and fifteenth of the Lunar Month.

On a Sunday morning at 11.30am, almost all the tables were taken up. Most of the people were in their 50s to 70s, a gathering of the retired folks. An interesting item on the table seemed to be beer! One man was seen taking a mixture from a bottle of Carlsberg and a bottle of Guiness Stout. And he was drinking it and eating fruits!

Across to the other side of the FC was a dim-sum stall, which used to house the Chwee-Kuey (Teochew Rice Cake), and there was a long queue, as it was in the past. I wonder why the Chwee-Kuey stall gave up.

Here is probably one place where Cantonese is still the main language spoken, and one could say the same for many Chinatowns around the world. For many of the older people, who probably do not stay in Chinatown, Sundays are days of gatherings with old friends or old neighbours and chats could have a wide range, from politics to the mundane things.

Chap Go Meh

To the various dialect groups of Chinese, the 15th day of the Chinese New Year could mean different things. But of course, all knows that it marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebration.

The age-old Wak Hai Cheng Beo at Philip St, a Teochew Temple which had since a long time been popular to Teochew, Hokkien and Cantonese, continues its traditional eve-of-chap-go-meh exchange of flags and lanterns. This goes on right through the 15th day. Gone are the days when one could see the devotees carrying flags and a bigger joss-stick sitting on the trishaws as they rode home. These days, they have even bigger joss-sticks to withstand the wind as they ride home in cars and maybe taxis.

To some Chinese families, it is a time for some tang-yuen, the familiar southern Chinese rice balls.

In Chinatown, it was the last bang for the Chinese New Year with another round of celebrations. Alas, I did not get to see it as I was somewhere else attending a temple dinner. But I managed to capture some scenes of the full moon (it is said that the moon is rounder on the 16th day of the lunar month) overlooking Chinatown.

Chinese New Year in Chinatown

Over the years, Chinese New Year in Chinatown means shopping before the big day and Yu-Shang (pronounced in Cantonese for Yu-Sheng) after the new year. The highlights of the goodies for the Chinese New Year were mainly for the traditional Chinese cooking, such as dried mushrooms, the famous Yunnan Ham, all kinds of Chinese sausages of various shapes, colours, size and lengths, dried oysters, fatt-Choy (in Cantonese for Fa Cai) and yes, tidbits such as boiled peanuts, cashew nuts, melon seeds, and sweets. The attraction for this year must be the Mua-chi (like the Japanese Daifuku) from Taiwan.

Said to be originated by three or four local Restauranteurs, the idea of Lo-Hei (again, in Cantonese for raising prosperity) was rooted and now it is an in-thing for all to go for Lo-Hei within the 15 days of the Chinese New Year. This year, I saw people going for Lo-Hei even before the CNY! Some would prefer to do it on the 7th day of CNY, as it is said to be everyone's birthday. And yes, from the traditional Cantonese raw fish, these days, one could do Lo-Hei with practically anything, from Salmon to Abalone.

One interesting landmark of the new entrance to Chinatown must be the decorations at the New Bridge Road/Eu Tong Sen St junction with Upper Cross St. This is one scene that goes 360 degree that you must see. (^^)

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Pai Ti Kong 拜天公

Today is the 9th day of the Lunar New Year. It is the birthday of the Jade Emperor, more popularly known to the Hokkien (Fujian) people as Ti Kong (Tian Gong in Mandarin). It is probably the single most important day for the Hokkien Taoists. As in the Chinese way of counting time, the first hour of the new day starts on the night before (in modern clock time) from 11pm. And so, the Hokkien would start their prayers from last night at 11pm, and well, depending on the throwing of the pua-puay (sheng-bei - the kidney shape wooden blocks that the Chinese Taoists use to communicate with the Deities or even the ancestors), the prayer could well end as late at 2am.

In the old days when I was living in a Peranakan house (our family rented a room) in Chinatown, it was a grand communal affair where all the tenants joined the landlady in offering the prayers. The main hall on the ground floor was arranged beautifully with all the praying paraphernalia, which included big red candles that were pushed into the sharp pointed brass candle holders (all polished for the Chinese New Year and this night), big joss papers known as Ti-Kong-Kim, most of them being folded into elaborate shapes, including those that looked like the ancient gold and silver ingots, and sugar canes.

A pair of sugar canes was and is still a must. According to stories heard, it was said once the Hokkien were being attacked (not sure if they were the mongols or bandits) and they went to hide in the sugar cane field. The sugar cane saved their lived. And so, when they came out alive, in gratitude the prayed to Ti Kong with the sugar canes, probably reminding them of how their lives were saved.

It was a night of grand offerings from roast pig to roast chicken and ducks, all kinds of Chinese kueh - like Huat Kueh and Kue-Nern-Ko (Egg cake pretty close to Castania), and yes, the Ti-Kong Pia (Cookies that the poor Hokkien made as a varied offering), fruits of all sorts, dried vegetarian dishes, and whatever the kitchen could produce. In our Peranakan House, it was a night of gathering as well, when all the tenants sat together, folded the Joss Papers and chatted. It was a night when children were allowed (almost forced to) stay up late to pray to Ti Kong.

The excitement came when the leader, in this case, the landlady, would seek approval to burn the joss papers. When this was granted, in unison, the occupants of the house would carry the joss papers, including the big and well decorated boxes and the sugar cane leaves chopped from the sugar cane, to form a bonfire. In the 1950s, it was also a time for the biggest amount of fire-crackers. Most of these fire crackers would have strung up to the bamboo sticks hung from the highest floor. In our house, the highest was third storey. It was a night when neighbouring houses would try to outdo each other in the fire-crackers too.

The next morning, with beady eyes, we would have to wade through the ankle deep "what's-left-over-of the firecrackers" - red papers - to walk to school. But we were also reminded of good and hearty makan awaiting for us when we returned home. This was one of the moments, we poor kids were waiting for.

As I do not have a picture of what I had described, I have borrowed this picture from Ronni Pinsler who has taken this Pai Ti Kong scene in Penang last night. It is almost similar, including the house. (^^)

Update: Wah, I did not know that as I wrote, someone in the west was doing the same! Monkey's narrations give me hope that tradition lives, albeit in smaller numbers. (^^;

A Trip to the Barber

Last Sunday, I took a walk to People's Park Centre basement, to my old Barber shop. You see, the new one at People's Park Complex was no more there. Businesses seem to come and go so fast these days. So, after two flings with the new barbers, I went back to the old.

It was the last Sunday before the Chinese New Year. As with Chinese traditions, the guys should go for their haircut before the New Year. So, as if it was a calling from within I joined the crowd. Gone are the days when if you have long hair you might be served last. (^^)

The barber chairs were all occupied. All the barbers were busy. Outside, on the benches were two guys - in their fifties, I think - with the towel all wrapped up on their heads. Ah, having a cold "perm". Another three were having their hair swept backwards, like the Rock-n-Roll dancers in Harajuku, Japan on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, they were having their hair tinted black.

The barbers of the old have their business evolved too, providing "perming" as well as dying. Digging of the ears is now a thing of the past. The electric shavers (or rather hair cutters) have replaced the traditional mechanical ones. Razor blades for shaving are now fitted with use and throw blades. AIDS have changed the ways shaving tools are used.

This barber shop - called Good World - has been around for quite a while. It is the modern barber shop of the old, but not of the new generation type. No, no lady barbers. An interesting thing about this barber shop is that the barbers all speak Hock Chew (Fuzhou) - I think. With the customers, they speak Hokkien or Mandarin. It was a surprise to me when I went this Sunday and a guy (new face) greeted and conversed with me in English. Changing Times. (^^)

Nothing like going to the same old place, doze off and have one's hair trimmed, amidst the chatters in Hock Chew, the comparisons of 4-D results and even some tall tales from some customers to the barbers. (^^)

A Good Soul Deserves Another

Last night, as I was picking up my mail from my mailbox on the groundfloor, there was a funeral wake. It was normal and I did not pay much attention until one lady, whom we met often in the lift, told me that the person died alone.

This man who had just passed away lived alone in the "senior citizen flat" along Upper Cross St. From what I understand from the people at the Wake, he was under social welfare. Inspite of all the hardship, he helped to deliver food and things to the other elderly people in the block, the people who are not able to move easily. He was an important connector in this community of elderly people.

He died alone without any relatives (at least at the Wake, no one was aware). The neighbours in the "community" took it upon themselves (with some volunteers like this lady and her husband who are living in my block, which across from that block) to give him a decent burial. They even arranged for Buddhist funeral rituals to be conducted.

At the Wake, the elderly neighbours who could walk were there to help out, such as folding the necessary joss-papers and burning candles/joss sticks. They tried collecting "white gold" (contributions to a funeral is known as white gold in Chinese) from the community. There was one donor who happened to be at the block to give ang-pows away to the senior citizen (these are the low profile philanthropists), who upon hearing of this case, gave S$1000 contribution. The community spirit is still alive.

Temple Facing The Sea 福德祠望海大伯公

It was said that way before Raffles arrived in Singapore in 1819, at this place where Palmer Road is now at, there was a thriving community. This could have been a thriving port, called Tanjong Malan, now known as Tanjong Pagar (Pagar meaning Kelongs or building on stilts in the sea used for trapping fish). And thus, it was only natural for the Chinese to first offer thanks to their Deities upon coming on shore. In this little place was a Chinese Temple dedicated to Da Bo Gong 大伯公 (more popularly known as Tua Pek Kong in Hokkien, and Fu Tat Chi (Fu De Ce) 福德祠 to the Cantonese and Hakka). As the temple was facing the sea (then), it was then known as the Da Bo Gong Temple facing the sea 福德祠望海大伯公.

This temple is probably the only "practising" Hakka temple in Singapore. For its more than a hundred and eighty years (considering 1819 as the starting point), this temple must have seen much. How its view of the sea was now blocked by containers when it could have been sending lapping waves on its steps. The bustling port activities. The different people living together - an early cosmopolitan town. There was also a famous kramat just across from the temple.

But much of the described scenes are oral history. What was it really like? Thanks to the Ying Fo Fui Kun (a HakkaClan) which administers the temple and NUS, an archaeological team has started doing some digs around the temple to understand better what life was like then. I hope that the dig will reveal more about life around the temple and the location then.